European markets close higher following choppy day's trade

On Wall Street, stocks dipped Thursday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average snapped a five-day winning streak and a recent market rally appeared to fade.

The Dow inched 0.21% lower, or 71 points, in early trade while the S&P 500 slipped 0.07%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.09%.

Investors are closely watching retail earnings today, with reports from Kohl's, Bath & Body Works and BJ's Wholesale expected to provide insight into the health of the consumer.

Meantime, initial jobless data provided clues into the state of the job market, with claims dropping to 250,000 for the week ended Aug. 13.

— Karen Gilchrist

Shares of Swiss life sciences company Siegfried climbed more than 12% by mid-afternoon to lead the Stoxx 600 after the company vastly outperformed first-half earnings expectations.

Adyen shares remained at the bottom of the index, down 11 after the Dutch payments company missed first-half earnings projections.

- Elliot Smith

Bond yields ticked downward, cooling after the previous session's rise following the release of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee's July meeting minutes.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was just under one basis point lower at 2.886%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond traded 1 basis point lower at 3.135%.

The yield on the shorter-term 2-year Treasury note was one basis point lower at 3.285%. Yields move inversely to prices, and a basis point is equal to 0.01%.

Markets are looking ahead to data releases on employment scheduled Thursday, including a variety of jobless claims as well as home sales figures.

Read the full bonds report here. 

— Natasha Turak

The final euro zone inflation print, published Thursday, confirmed that annual consumer price increases across the 19-member common currency bloc hit a record high 8.9% in July.

European Union statistics office Eurostat said prices rose 0.1% on a monthly basis, while energy remained the largest contributor to upward price pressures, with Russia's war in Ukraine continuing to impair supply.

- Elliot Smith

Adyen shares plunged more than 11% in early trade to the bottom of the Stoxx 600 after the Dutch payments company missed first-half earnings expectations.

At the top of the index, Danish hearing aid maker GN Store Nord climbed more than 5% after reporting strong second-quarter profit growth.

Germany's natural gas storage facilities hit a key milestone this month, two weeks ahead of schedule, as European governments scramble to prepare for the winter period.

"I will say that so far Germany has done a good job," Zongqiang Luo, gas analyst at energy consultancy Rystad Energy, told CNBC via telephone. "But let's see how they are going to fulfill the target for the next two months. This will be very, very critical for the coming winter."

Europe's race to save enough gas to get through the colder months comes as Russia squeezes supplies. The surge in energy costs is driving up household bills and pushing inflation to its highest level in decades.

Here's the full story.

— Sam Meredith

PayPal has lost nearly half its market cap this year — and that's despite a strong rally over the past month.

But top tech investor Paul Meeks is still a fan of the online payments giant. He tells CNBC Pro Talks why he thinks the stock is a buying opportunity.

Pro subscribers can read the story here.

— Zavier Ong

Economic growth in the euro zone for the second quarter was revised down on Wednesday from 0.7% to 0.6% quarter-on-quarter, and from 4% to 3.9% annually.

Eurostat also revealed that employment across the 19-member common currency bloc rose 0.3% quarterly, for a 2.4% year-on-year increase.

The energy efficiency improvements that companies carry out will be increasingly important to investors, according to Goldman Sachs.

"Carbon is increasingly becoming a factor that impacts stock selection and equity valuation, driven by growing regulatory pressure and net zero investment strategies," the investment bank wrote in a recent August report.

Goldman identified buy-rated companies which rank well on their reductions in energy usage, and where it says energy efficiency will play a key role in the companies' competitive positioning in the long term.

Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

U.K. inflation rose to another 40-year high in July as spiraling food and energy prices continued to intensify the country's historic squeeze on households.

The consumer price index rose 10.1% annually, according to estimates published by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday, above a Reuters consensus forecast of 9.8% and up from 9.4% in June.

Core inflation, which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, came in at 6.2% in the year to July 2022, rising from 5.8% in June and ahead of projections of 5.9%.

Rising food prices made the largest upward contribution to annual inflation rates between June and July, the ONS said in its report.

- Elliot Smith

European markets are expected to open higher Thursday.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 20 points higher at 7,600, Germany's DAX up 48 points at 15,259, France's CAC up 4 points at 7,072 and Italy's FTSE MIB up 73 points at 28,085, according to data from IG. 

On the data front, preliminary inflation data for Germany and Spain in September are due, as well as Italian consumer confidence for the same month. There are no major earnings.

— Holly Ellyatt